fruits & nuts


Subject: fruits & nuts
From: Scottie Bowman (rbowman@indigo.ie)
Date: Fri Jul 27 2001 - 03:45:04 GMT


    In a recent post, Cecilia remarks:
        '... There's very little I like more than butting heads
        with someone who is willing to state, and support,
        an opinion contrary to mine ...'
    (And in a postscript suggests she should have written it
    in green ink - the telltale mark of the psychotic.)

    It struck me that here was a kind of answer to Paul’s enquiry
    about the relative numbers of nuts on the Salinger,
    as opposed to the Austen list. For you could surely find
    nothing LESS green inky than Cecilia’s post. Her contributions
    (& Tim’s & Will’s & Mattis’ & ... fill in your own candidates)
    are - apart from their great literary intelligence - characterised
    by balance, kindly decency & a sort of grown-up tolerance:
    something notably lacking in mine, say, or (... round up
    the usual suspects. How about Kozusko?)

    I’d intended originally to point out the age spread as
    the essential difference between the two lists. But, on
    reflection, I think it has indeed more to do with this great
    dichotomy among people in general: the reasonables &
    the crazies.

    At a superficial level at least, Jane Austen embodies sense &
    sensibility. And she seems to attract people of a similar
    disposition. There ARE no crazies on Austen-L. You DO
    get so-called Fanny Wars on where mildly flushed disagreements
    arise over Fanny Price viewed as a Christian Exemplar or
    as Monumental Wimp; & tight lipped exchanges about how
    forgiveable it was to wet Colin Firth’s shirt QUITE so enticingly.
    But that’s about it. (The achingly kerrect American lady academics
    who make up the bulk of the members seem never to have twigged
    that she was, essentially, a comic writer.)

    And while we haven’t had any real nasties on Bananafish (for these,
    you have to go the Hemingway list), there IS the feeling that -
    despite the civilising pressure from the above mentioned adults -
    out there in the inverted forest you can hear some pretty chilling
    cries from nameless beasts that could, at any moment, erupt out of
    the undergrowth.

    That’s really what appeals to me as a natural born head-banger:
    the feeling that - you never know - it could suddenly go all
    pear-shaped with tears & reproaches & hysterical laughter.

    So reminiscent, after all, of the home life of our own dear author.

    Scottie B.

-
* Unsubscribing? Mail majordomo@roughdraft.org with the message
* UNSUBSCRIBE BANANAFISH



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b25 : Mon Sep 10 2001 - 15:29:40 GMT